Smelting-furnace.



No. 783,535. PATBNTED PEB. 28, 1905.

M. MURPHY.

SMELTING FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9. 1903.

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Wnesses, Inventor.

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PATENTED FEB. 28, 1905. M. MURHY.

SMELTNG FURNAGE.

TI 9, 1903. APPLICA 0N FILED MAY 6 SHBBTSSEBET 2l INH Hl llllllllllilll No. 783,535. PATENTED FEB. 28, 1905. M. MURPHY.

SMELTING FURNAGE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9. 1903.

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No. 783,535. PATENTED FEB. 28, 1905.

M. MURPHY.

SMELTING FURNACE.

APPLIUATION FILED MAY 9, 1903.

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No. 783,585. PATENTED PEB. 28, 1905. M. MURPHY.

SMELTING FURNAGE.

APPLIUATION FILED MAY 9. 1903.

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PATENTED FEB. 28, 1905. M. MURPHY.

SMELTING FURNAGE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9 1903 [n vuen Z071 Wnz'ifnesses.

UNTTED STATES Iatentcd February 28, 1905.

PATENT OEEICE.

MICHAEL MURPHY, OF PUEBLO, COLORADO, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO FRED l/V. LUCCO, OF PUEBLO, COLORADO.

. SNIELTlNf-FUFXNACEu SPEGIFICATIN forming part of Letters Patent No. 783,535, dated February 28, 1905.

Application ilecl May 9, 1903. Serial No. 156,397.

Be itknown that 1*,MICHAELMURPHY, a citizen of the United States of America, residing1 at Pueblo, in the county of Pueblo and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Smeltng'-Furnaces',of which the following' is a full, clear, and exact specilication.

'.lhe accompanying' drawings fully illustrate IO a furnace embodying my invention, and in the said drawings- Figure l is a horizontal section showing a body of molten metal in place. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section taken on the line I 5 c Z of Fig'. 1, the plane of the section on which Fig. l is taken being indicated by the line a b on Fig. 2. Fig. 3 isa transverse vertical section. Fig. A is a detail plan of a portion of the ore-bed or hearth. Fig'. 5 is a side eleva 2o tion of the furnace. Fig. 6 is an end elevation of the furnace.

The walls and body of the furnace are built of brick or similar material and at the front end is a grate Z, on which the fuel is supported and heat generated. In rear of the grate is a bridge-wall 7:, over which the heat passes to the body of ore, and this bridge-wall is provided with an internal water-space Extending from the front face of the bridge-wall 3o to the rear end of the furnace is a bed-plate n,

and below this bed-plate are longitudinal airpassages m, communicating at their front ends with a transverse air-passage m2, whereby free circulation'of air through the bottom of 3 5 the furnace is permitted. In order that the air may have access to the greatest possible extent of the surface of the bed-plate, the central portion of the same is supported on lrails instead of resting directly on the brick 4o foundation or body of the furnace,4 as clearly shown in Fig'. 3. system of staybars presently referred to. The transverse passage m2, it will be noticed, is just in rear of the bridge-wall, so that the cold air will be drawn in at'the hottest point of the furnace and slightly heated before passing' back below the bed-plate. .I thus guard against precipitate chillingl of the bottom of the melting-chamber and at the same time the foundation is avoided.

These rails form part of the maintain an even temperature below the same, 5o so that while the metal will be effectually and quickly melted the crackingI orcrumbling' of Above the bedplate and in rear of the bridge-wall is a con cave elliptical ore-bed or hearth rf, on which the ore to be treated is fed through a chargehole p in the top of the furnace and a charg'e-` hole f] in the side wall. The tap-hole /t is located in the opposite side of the furnace to the charge-hole 1 and below the same, while 60 the skimming-hole fr is located in the Irear end of the furnace and above the tap-hole. In the front end of the side walls of the furnace are located ports s, through which hot-air blasts may be forced to drive the floating' slag' 65 to the skimming-hole. The floor of the hearth or ore-bed is laid in such a manner as to equalize the strain in every direction. As shown clearly in Fig. 4, a single row of bricks is laid along each axis of the elliptical ore-bed, 7o the bricks of which do not break joint at the point of intersection of the rows. The quar ter-sections of the ellipse are then iilled with bricks which break joint in the usual manner and are arranged in rows that are at right angles to each other.

The floor, as shown clearly in Fig. 3, extends into the side walls of the furnace, the result of this construction and the described peculiar arrangement of the bricks being to 8O permit expansion and contraction to some degree with out in any way affecting' the strength of the structure.

ln order to maintain the unbroken solidity of the mass constituting' the walls and body 85 of the furnace and at the same time provide for the expansion due to the intense heat necessary for the successful operation of the furnace, l employ a plurality of longitudinal stay rods or bars zi and vertical stay rods or bars w, placed against the side and end walls of the furnace, and stay-bars A, extending' through the same below the bed-plate a. These several bars are held in place by rods fv and m and a truss-rod y, which are provided with eyes or loops on their ends engaging' Qver the stay bars and rods and with turnbuckles .a at intermediate'points of their length. As the heat varies and the furnace-walls tend to expand or contract, the turnbuckles are manipulated to adjust the rods to the strain, so as to maintain the walls of the furnace intact. Cotter-pins B, inserted through the stay-bars beyond and adjacent to the eyes or loops` prevent the connecting turnbuckle-rods slipping oil the ends of the said stay-bars.

In the operation of the furnace the ore is fed onto the hearth and melted, the slag skimmed therefrom, and a charge of molten metal withdrawn through the tap-hole. asmuch as the tap-hole is above the bottom of the hearth, there will always be a quantity of molten metal left on the hearth, so that the hearth will be protected against great changes in temperature. Furthermore, this surplus or remaining body of molten metal materially assists in the melting' of the fresh charge of ore. The melting-chamber, of which the hearth forms the bottom, being' elliptical in shape, there are no cold corners therein; but an even temperature will prevail throughout the same.

The melting-chamber is not only elliptical in plan, but its bottom is concave both longitudinally and transversely, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, being a true inverted arch without any iiat surface. As a result of this construction the edges of the mass of metal are not as deep as the central portion and the heat is more economically employed. By employing an arched roof and an invertedarch-shaped bottom to the melting-chamber in connection with the system of stay bars or braces and connecting-rods the furnace becomes practically one solid piece of masonry, yet capable of expansion and contraction without injuring any part and especially without cracking or disintegrating the ore-bed, which is subjected to the hardest usage. The

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peculiar arrangement of the bricks in the orebed, as shown in Fig'. 4, plays no small part in this expansion and contraction.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is"

l. A smelting-furnace having' a transverse air-passage below the ore-bed and just in rear of the bridge-Wall the ends of which extend through the side walls of the furnace and communicate with the outer air, and a series of longitudinal air-passages beneath the orevbed communicating at their front ends with the transverse air-passage and having their rear ends communicating with the outer air. 2. A smelting-furnace having an elliptical melting-chamber, the bottom of which is an inverted elliptical arch having a single row of bricks along each axis which do not break joint at the point of intersection of the rows, and having' its quarter-sections filled in with bricks arranged in rows at right angles to each other, all the rows in the quarter-sections and alongI the axes extending into the side walls of the furnace. 3. In a smelting-furnace, the combination with the body thereof having an elliptical melting-chamber, the roof of which is arched and the ore-bed of which is an inverted arch having its ends extended into the side walls of the body of the furnace, stay-bars extending longitudinally through the body of the furnace below the ore-bed and supporting the same, other stay-bars arranged against the outer sides of all the walls of the furnace, and extensible connecting-rods securing' the stay-bars.

MIKE. MURPHY. Vitnesses:

C. M. IVALKER, FRED W. LUooo. 

